Refining brand strategy: insights into how the “informed poseur” legitimizes purchasing counterfeits

In this paper, we examine how brand managers can utilize the knowledge function to devise a brand strategy that reinforces a luxury brand’s reputation and counteracts the actions of counterfeiters. We explain why brand managers need to develop insights into how knowledge is utilized so that they can understand the behaviour of the “informed poseur”. Attention focuses on how the knowledge function addresses the conflict between the “social” function and the “self-ego” function when consumers consider purchasing counterfeits. We extend existing knowledge by identifying two subgroups: the “Informed poseur-realistic” and the “informed poseur-neo”, and distinguish between the two subgroups by making links with their social context. This adds to our knowledge of how millennials think and make purchase-related decisions, and how brand managers can develop brand portfolio strategies that highlight the uniqueness of the value proposition and communicate more effectively with the “informed poseur” group. A small group interview and survey were used to collect data, and the findings suggest that when an “informed poseur” considers purchasing a counterfeit product, they corroborate their actions by utilizing the knowledge function, which takes them through various cognitive and evaluative processes.